CPJ calls for full and public investigation into journalist’s death
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is shocked by the death of Reuters television cameraman Mazen Dana, who was killed by machine gun fire from a U.S. tank near Baghdad yesterday. We demand a full, public investigation into this incident. According to several press accounts, Dana was struck in the chest while filming near Abu Ghraib Prison outside Baghdad, late in the afternoon on August 17. Dana had been reporting near the prison after a mortar attack had killed six Iraqis there the previous night. Eyewitnesses quoted by international media said that several journalists had been near the prison at the time of the incident and that a soldier in the tank fired on Dana as he filmed it approaching him from about 50 meters (55 yards).
Dana was recipient of CPJ International Press Freedom Award in 2001
New York, August 17, 2003—Mazen Dana, a veteran television cameraman for Reuters, was killed in Baghdad on Sunday while filming outside the city’s Abu Ghraib prison. According to wire service reports, Dana was shot by U.S.soldiers riding on a tank in the Iraqi capital. The 43-year-old Palestinian was honored by CPJ two years ago for…
Journalist briefly detained and handcuffed
New York, August 13, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is disturbed that U.S. forces forcibly detained Hassan Fattah, editor of the English-language daily Iraq Today, on Monday, August 11, after preventing him from attending a press conference. In an e-mail to CPJ, Fattah described the incident, which occurred at Baghdad’s conference center when he…
Al-Jazeera cameraman and assistant wounded during grenade attack
New York, August 11, 2003—A cameraman for the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera and his assistant were injured yesterday, Sunday, August 10, during a grenade attack on U.S. troops in Baghdad. Cameraman Hussein Ali Hassan and his assistant Mustafa Hazem suffered shrapnel wounds to their legs after an assailant or assailants dropped a grenade from a…
NBC soundman dies of injuries sustained last month
New York, July 7, 2003—Richard Wild, a 24-year-old British free-lance cameraman, died on Saturday, July 5, after being gunned down in central Baghdad. In a separate incident, Jeremy Little, a free-lance soundman working for the U.S.-based television network NBC, died on Sunday of complications from injuries sustained during a grenade attack in central Iraq last…
Journalists who disappeared
CPJ research indicates that the following journalists have disappeared while doing their work. Although some of them are feared dead, no bodies have been found, and they are therefore not classified as “Killed.” If a journalist disappeared after being held in government custody, CPJ classifies him or her as “Imprisoned” as a way to hold…
Boston Globe correspondent and translator killed in car accident
New York, May 9, 2003—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply saddened by the death of Elizabeth Neuffer, a veteran foreign correspondent for The Boston Globe, and her translator, who were killed today in a car accident while on assignment in Iraq. According to The Boston Globe, the 46-year-old Neuffer died “when the car…